


Part of the Script

by seraphic_gate



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-11-26 13:30:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18181229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphic_gate/pseuds/seraphic_gate
Summary: The script of Throne of the Stellar (hoshimeguri) calls for a kiss between Orion and Erin.  It’s as if Nanase becomes a different person when he’s acting.





	Part of the Script

Gaku had kissed plenty of costars on stage while performing in dramas. It didn’t mean anything. 

If he loved someone, just a clever look from them could set his heart on fire. But a stranger couldn’t move him, even in the most physical situation.

Then again, Nanase wasn’t exactly a stranger.

“Yaotome-san!” He called out to him smiling, exited as always. Today there was a jitteriness when he waved his hand. 

“Don’t blush,” Gaku laughed. “Have you had to kiss on camera before?”

Nanase cupped a hand to his cheek. The blush only got deeper. “I haven’t ever kissed anyone before.”

His mannerisms were nothing like Tenn’s, but there was something familiar there. Maybe it was the way his lips puffed or the crinkle of his nose, something subtle and impossible to isolate.

“It won’t count,” Gaku said, clapping a hand on Riku’s shoulder. “It’s like kids playing pretend, you know?”

They had been working on Throne of the Stellar for a while. Nanase stood there in his black and gold costume as a makeup tech touched him up and then quickly got out of the way for the cameras to start rolling.

“I’ll do my best,” Nanase said. 

The director called for action.

Kind-hearted and pure Nanase only had to take a deep breath and close his eyes for a moment, and he became a deadly assassin who hid his true intentions behind a smile.

“This may be our last meeting.”

Erin wasn’t a depthless character. Despite his murderous background and his irreverent behavior, Erin was a character who loved his country and his king above all else. 

“No. In won’t accept that!”

For Gaku’s part, the acting was easy. Orion was moral and headstrong, and Gaku was just the same.

Orion didn’t know about Erin’s feelings and his job was to act surprised, maybe embarrassed, but not entirely opposed to what was happening when Erin grabbed him by the cravat around his neck and pulled him into a kiss.

Nanase didn’t pull his punches. It was almost like he wasn’t Nanase at all in that moment. He kissed him just as passionately as his character would have kissed Orion.

A stage kiss didn’t need to be nuanced. It only needed to look convincing and sexy from the outside. Most of that was editing, emotional music, stuff like that. In reality, there was no intimacy to the acts he performed on stage.

But the way Nanase kissed him was somehow both forceful and soft. He could feel the character’s desperation in it, how much he had longed for it. As if Erin was a real person with real desires.

Warmth blossomed in his chest, butterflies floating around inside. 

It was in the script for him to grab Erin by the arms and pull him away. He almost didn’t remember. He’d almost forgotten where he was.

It came as an honest reaction. He pulled Nanase away, surprised, flustered, like it hadn’t been scripted.

It worked beautifully for the scene, but Gaku struggled for his line. “Y-you’re coming back home, that’s a command from your king.”

As soon as the scene cut, Nanase exhaled a huge breath and was Nanase again, bristling with nervous energy. “How was it?”

Gaku laughed at himself. “It was really good. Nanase-kun, you’re really convincing as an actor.”

Nanase seemed so happy to hear that from him. He smiled brightly. “Do you think so?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe you aren’t trained.”

“Well, I did get some training at Takanashi Productions over the last year.”

“Still, it’s kind of amazing, you know?”

“No way! I’m not cool, like Yaotome-san.”

“When you’re acting as Erin, you are super cool.”

“Ah, Yaotome-san! No way.”

Gaku laughed again. Riku was bashful about compliments, and that made it all the more fun to pour them on. “Really, I think you should join up with Nikaido for a project and see what the two of you could pull off.”

Speaking of, he felt the heavy clap on his shoulder and knew who was behind him. He turned to find Nikaido Yamato glaring at him from behind those spectacles of his.

“Yamato-san!” Riku beamed. “Did I do a good job?”

“Of course you did, Riku.” Yamato was smiling, but it still felt somehow like he was glaring menacingly. “I heard that manager needed to speak to you.”

“Ah, where is she right now?”

“Backstage, I think.”

“Wait, Nanase,” Gaku said. “They might need to shoot another take.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?,” Yamato said. He was smiling daggers. “But I doubt that, since your first take was so convincing, after all.”

“Director says it’s fine,” Riku said. He waved his hand. “Thanks for helping me on my first kiss, Yaotome-san!”

“D-don’t say it like that. I told you, it doesn’t count.”

He wasn’t sure if Riku was listening as he ran off to find Tsumugi, an errand which he was sure Yamato had invented only to get him out of earshot.

“Why are you looking at me like that? It was in the script!”

“That might be, but you didn’t have to look so much like you were enjoying it.”

“I wasn’t!”

“Hm, but I have visual evidence.” He held up his phone, with which he had taken a picture right at the most incriminating part of the kiss. Gaku had to admit, even if it was mostly Riku’s doing, it was a convincing shot. “I wonder what Kujo would say about your acting skills.”

“Please don’t,” Gaku said.

“What would you give me to keep this out of Tenn’s inbox, huh?”

“I...”. He swallowed and thought for a moment. It was going to be on TV anyway. They were all going to see t at the premiere. May as well get it over with. “You know what, do your worst.”

But before Yamato could send the incriminating photo, Gaku’s phone began to chirp. He looked at it and groaned. “You were too late.”

“What?”

Gaku showed him where Tenn had sent him a screenshot prefaced with only the words “explain this.”

Riku: I kissed Yaotome-san today!  
Riku: He said I did a really good job!  
Riku: It was my first time, but he went easy on me, so please thank him for me when you see him!

Yamato laughed. “Your karma has come around without me intervening.”

Gaku began to type furiously. 

Gaku: It was for the production! It was in the script!

“Ah, but a visual aid could always help.” Yamato sent the image, Gaku heard the bloop sound effect as it posted.

_Kujo Tenn is typing._

The scariest phrase he’d ever read.

Tenn: It looks like you were enjoying it.

Gaku: of course it LOOKS that way, I was acting!

Tenn: Was it nice?

Gaku: Stop trying to make it weird.

Tenn: hmm

Gaku: You know what, if you want to know, then yeah! Your brother is a good kisser. Better than you, I bet.

Tenn: Do you want to die?

“Yaotome-san!” Riku shouted to him from the break table. He and Yamato looked up. Riku smiled and blushed as he pranced back to them. “Manager said lunch was ordered from our favorite soba shop, I want you to try it! Will you eat it with me?”

“Second date already?” Yamato snarled at him. Riku didn’t catch it.

“Yeah, sure thing, Nanase,” Gaku said, ignoring that. He brushed off Yamato and followed Riku to the table.

Riku grinned. “Oh yeah. I liked it when you called me Nanase-kun.”

Gaku sighed and sat down for his last meal before his death at the hands of Tenn Kujo.


End file.
